Arne was clearly the right choice, and it was time. We really couldn’t confirm that anything was taken until November. That’s especially true at Marriott, where we fill most jobs from inside, which gives people an awareness of the potential to move up. He was preceded in death by his parents; his step-daughter, Mollie Page; his granddaughter, Cora Page and his brothers, Kåre Haugen and Arne Haugen, both of Norway. At Marriott our culture is focused on people, because treating one another well is essential to creating an atmosphere in which everyone treats guests well, and that’s the most fundamental element of our business. This is the full obituary where you can express condolences and share memories. I believe there were people skills in his DNA, even if they weren’t immediately apparent. He held important jobs in finance and brand management. He founded the Danish Unity party and was a resistance fighter during the occupation of Denmark . I don’t believe that anyone who’s 80 should be running anything. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. So in 2005 John became vice chairman of the board and left his executive position at the company. In 1998 our chief financial officer left, and although Arne wasn’t an obvious choice for that position, we moved him into it. Second, I had good momentum throughout my career here, so I was never dissatisfied. Marriott was involved in a big lawsuit, and Arne was one of the lawyers who represented us. Although I miss working with him on a daily basis, in some ways our relationship is better now that we’ve gotten the question of succession out of the way. But, ultimately, a decision had to be made. BETHESDA, MA—Addressing investors in a tense early morning teleconference call, Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson reportedly told investors Thursday that he’s had a pretty good first quarter just in terms of his personal life. Photography: Getty Images/Bloomberg The Idea:For decades Bill Marriott expected that his son would become the third generation to lead the global hotel company. I don’t recall a conversation where anyone said “Arne, you have lousy people skills.” But I do recall a series of conversations I had with Bill and with other leaders about how important Marriott’s culture is to its success, and how this was something I needed to be aware of and supportive of. We had a good relationship, and we still do. He has tremendous potential, but at the moment, he is still learning. And John is far happier in what he’s doing now than he ever could have been running a $12 billion company. We are not going to pay attention to the short-term ramifications of this because the name of the game is to maintain the trust that we have, and maybe even build on the trust we have by telling them what we know, by telling them as we learn more, what more we learn. So when I look to the future, I think about the possibility that my youngest son, David, will someday be the CEO. In turn, this gave them the pluck to advise the CEO on which direction the company needed to go and how it will get there. In 2002 he joined our board. Monday: son to Katie and Brandon Davis, Minot. “Why don’t I make you your own tree?” her dad offered, and he did. 1972. I first met Arne Sorenson, who eventually succeeded me, in 1993. John just shook his head and laughed. He’s put himself on record advocating for infrastructure investment, tax reform, LGBT rights, immigration, diversity—and simple decency (political and otherwise). In 2016, he led Marriott International’s $13.6-billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, catapulting the company’s total number of hotel rooms to more than 1.2 million. This director came to think that the executive VP was the wrong choice, and he urged my father to make me CEO. My father, who’d started the business in 1927 with a root beer stand in Washington, DC, before moving into restaurants and then hotels, had an experienced executive vice president working for him who many thought would succeed him. As Arne was learning the business, my son John continued to move up through the company. But that didn’t make it a horse race between him and John. Have you looked at how other companies have transitioned from family CEOs to nonfamily CEOs? Arne has a lot of respect for David, and David has a lot of respect for Arne. Arne Christian Sørensen (2 October 1906 – 1 March 1978) was a Danish politician and author. I was really impressed that he could explain something so complex in a way that anyone could understand. There, in some respects, I am involved in the conversations daily but not necessarily bringing more expertise to that set of challenges and questions than a whole bunch of people at the table. That would be disloyal. But even though he’d spent years filing lawsuits and conducting cross-examinations, Arne has a broader background, as I came to learn. The worst news came on May 3, when the company announced Sorenson, 60, had been diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer and would soon begin treatment. Especially in the personal services business, in which the brand is guaranteeing a certain kind of experience, I believe that having someone whose name is synonymous with the brand, who stands behind it and cares about you, is a real advantage. I don’t recall thinking of us as rivals until a Wall Street Journalstory appeared that described us that way. At the age of 32, Bill Marriott became the head of the company his father had built up from its beginnings as a root beer stand in 1927. But as he moved from running hotels to working at headquarters, he seemed less happy. That isn’t the life for him. Published in the Calgary Herald on 2018-05-22. Arne and John didn’t act like rivals, and I’m sure that if John had succeeded me, Arne would have given him a chance and stayed on in a senior role. Many companies have mandatory retirement at 65, and a lot of CEOs today are retiring in their fifties. But I never felt that with John. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. ... More from Arne Sorenson 97 articles. A series of labor strikes across the U.S.? John had worked here for 20 years before I arrived, and by that time he had a big job. Trained as a lawyer, Sorenson had an unusual path to the corner office. Until 2012 it had had only two CEOs, and Marriott had always thought that one of his four children would succeed him in that role. Check. ... More from Arne Sorenson. 154 percent versus 60 percent for the S&P 500. He spent most of his adult life preparing to succeed me as CEO. I recognized that Arne had great potential, but he didn’t have any experience in the operations side of the hotel business. I didn’t find it difficult. My wife and I had dinner with John and his wife recently, and I mentioned that I’d spent the day in a 10-hour management meeting. I care too much about Marriott, which has been my life’s work, to make a risky choice. There’s Airbnb, which is fast disrupting the travel business; the rise of anti-globalism, anathema to a company with hotels in 131 countries; and, of course, an endless series of highly public brushfires that come along with welcoming guests of every stripe, such as the LGBT community erupting in protest at the President of Brazil hosting an event at a Marriott in New York’s Times Square (he ultimately cancelled), to name just one. She became a U.S. citizen, learned English and raised her bright, beautiful daughter, Iris. Arne had already begun to handle some of the day-to-day jobs typically done by a CEO, and I decided it was time to make the transition official. And if a family company chooses its first nonfamily CEO, that doesn’t necessarily mean no family member will serve as its top executive in the future. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. His father was a Lutheran missionary, and Arne was born in Japan while his parents were doing missionary work. He spent a lot of time marking up contracts, redoing the work of the company’s lawyers. I began to think about Arne as a potential CEO. Arne Sorenson became the CEO of Marriott International in March 2012. The case involved a lot of incredibly complicated financial details, and Arne helped me first to understand and then to explain them so that they sounded simple. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The Idea:For decades Bill Marriott expected that his son would become the third generation to lead the global hotel company. After all, I’d literally learned the business visiting restaurants with my father as a young boy, and I’d worked part-time in different jobs at the company since I was 14. And although succession is ultimately the board’s decision, I believe that if I’d pushed, the directors would have been willing to give John a chance too. But in my experience, fears about retention are overblown: If you treat people well, they’ll want to stay. I don’t necessarily believe that the experiences of other family companies are relevant here. Two-year-old Debbie Marriott, Bill and Donna’s daughter, snips the ribbon. My oldest son, Stephen, has a debilitating disease—he’s blind and mostly deaf. He really liked working in the Marriott culture, and he wanted to stay near Washington, where he’d lived since college and where he and his wife were raising their family. When you’re talking about the past few years for Marriott International and its CEO, Arne Sorenson, it may be easier to talk about what hasn’t happened than what has. Although the announcement, in December of 2011, was treated as big news because Marriotts had been in the top job for nearly 85 years, it wasn’t much of a surprise to people who knew the company. Arne married Edith Irene Sorenson on month day 1917, at age 41 at marriage place , Ohio. But as time went on, Bill Marriott realized that it wasn’t the right fit—for either John or the company. My youngest child, David, is just 39, and a phenomenal executive. Copyright © 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing. Trinity Hospital Sunday: daughter to Marie Whitetaileagle and Tyson Eagleman, New Town. Litigation does not have as a primary goal making people feel good. Sorenson isn’t missing his morning workouts, and said he … January 6 at 9:57 AM. It showed how proud of you he was and also shared 15 guideposts. He obviously had deep insights into the hotel business, which he continues to offer as vice chairman of our board. Arne is a real role model for all CEOs.”. As far as I know, Arne didn’t seriously consider leaving. So, even when the decision, ultimately, has to be made where the buck stops, if you haven’t gotten input from a team that feels like they can be transparent with you, you’re going to be supremely harmed in the decision that you make. He obviously had deep insights into the hotel business, which he continues to offer as vice chairman of our board. Sorenson … He worked extremely hard, and he knew the business from A to Z. I was determined to mentor him and to give him all the tools he would need to succeed. My first real experience with him came on the day he prepared me for a deposition. In both circumstances, you’re bred first to listen. As I watched John adapt to this role, I could see that he wasn’t having much fun. Over time we both came to the conclusion that, wonderful as it would have been for me to hand Marriott off to my son, he wasn’t the right choice. He oversaw all our sales efforts as an executive vice president, and then he became president of North American Lodging, which gave him total responsibility for our largest business. Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson has been diagnosed with stage two pancreatic cancer. In an emotional video message on Thursday to Marriott International employees, CEO Arne Sorenson characterized the coronavirus crisis as more severe for … https://chiefexecutive.net/2019-ceo-of-the-year-marriott-arne-sorenson I have four children, and I had always hoped that one of them would succeed me as CEO, just as I succeeded my father. If something had happened to me suddenly, those deputies would have been qualified to step in. He grew up very active in his church. As expected, Sorenson replaced him, becoming the first non-family member to head Marriott. CEO Arne Sorenson is optimistic, even as he prepares for surgery to treat his pancreatic cancer. Total shareholder return? Some of them, I think, require more of a singular decision, maybe, and some of them less. Some of them were probably viewed as potential successors, but I was in no hurry to give up the job. Yet, somehow, he’s largely avoided the public tar-and-feathering that keeps many CEOs on the sidelines in these bruising times. “This issue has gotten far too politicized, which is a tragedy,” Sorenson said during the meeting. It had to be made by me. Dan Bigman is Editor and Chief Content Officer of Chief Executive Group, publishers of Chief Executive, Corporate Board Member, ChiefExecutive.net, Boardmember.com and StrategicCFO360. We brought him in to head our mergers and acquisitions team. Earlier today, President and CEO Arne Sorenson shared this message w... ith Marriott International associates regarding the events at the U.S. Capitol yesterday. The past year was full of compelling events and personalities within the hospitality industry, and looking back, many leaders stand out as strong contenders for the title of "Leader of the Year." Marriott chief executive Arne Sorenson, who currently travels as many as 200 nights a year as part of his job, is likely to scale back in the coming months, a spokeswoman said. But that doesn’t rule out another Marriott as the fourth chief executive, he says. So in 2003, with the support of the board, we made him president of our European operations, which at the time consisted of more than 150 hotels. He doesn’t have the temperament to run a company the size of Marriott today, with 3,800 properties and 18 brands. I was only 32 and had worked […]. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. A memorial service will be held at noon, Saturday, Jan. 30, at Nash-Jackan Funeral Home in Bruce with Deacon Doug Sorenson … Chief Executive’s publications are designed to help CEOs do their jobs better and run their businesses more effectively.
To offer a short summary of “Clotel : Or The President’s Daughter” by William Wells Brown it should be noted that the author presents a number of complex characters who, even though they may be recognizable literary stereotypes of the period, have equally complex relationships to … If you have any question about this novel, Please don't … Overview. Tell me about your relationship with John Marriott. Two of his sons have worked for the company for many years, and one of them, John, seemed destined to succeed his father. And to be clear, I still consider Marriott to be a family-led firm. He was 20 years older than I was, and when it came to finance, he was brilliant. During my decades as president and CEO, the company grew immensely: At the end of 2012 we had 3,800 properties in 73 countries and territories, and our revenue last year was $11.8 billion. If you’re facing them alone, you’re probably in a dangerous place. But the more I looked at the situation, the more I realized that John is a natural-born entrepreneur. We’re going to be transparent with our customers. “The complexity and globality of his business—with a major acquisition—demonstrated his leadership,” said Bob Nardelli, CEO of XLR-8 and former CEO of Home Depot. Very different kinds of decisions, but every one fundamentally dependent on the right team around the table. Every company develops some level of bureaucracy as it grows, and for a senior executive, managing that bureaucracy is an important part of the job. When I think of a litigator, I don’t see someone who’s putting his arm around people, coaching and counseling and loving them, supporting and promoting them. In 1989, when I was 57, I suffered a heart attack, and I began to think a little more seriously about succession. Marriott International. Remember that I’m a reformed lawyer, so I came here without a deep knowledge of the lodging industry and without a clear career path. 1969. Marriott was involved in a big lawsuit, and Arne was one of the lawyers who represented us. Did you receive guidance on how to develop in that area? We sat down with Sorenson in late May at the company’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, to hear more about how he takes on the turbulence—and maybe how the rest of us can do it better, too. Obituary david for o. Sorenson. He combines that with a firm and commanding leadership style. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Our associates view their connection with Marriott in a way that’s deeper than if the family weren’t involved. During his time at Marriott, I watched him become very patient with people. The directors became very supportive of him, and he performed well. 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